Oral history interview with Jacques J. Polak, 2000

Biographical Note

Economist

Scope and Contents

Born in Holland. Education: Primary and Secondary school in Rotterdam, Erasmiaans Gymnaisum, doctoral in Economics Amsterdam University, 1932-1937. Career: research assistant to Jan Tinbergen at League of Nations (Geneva), October 1937; assistant to Tjalling Koopman at League of Nations (Geneva), 1938; Princeton University Institute for Advanced Studies (affiliated with League of Nations), 1940; Shipping, Finance, and Trade Mission, Division of Netherlands Embassy, April 1943; Bretton Woods Conference, Summer 1944; United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Assistant Financial Advisor and Economic Advisor to Director General Herbert Lehman and Fiorello LaGuardia, late 1944-1947; International Monetary Fund (IMF) Senior Economist and Director of Research (1958), 1947-1979; Compensatory Finance Facility and special drawing rights (SDRs) established under Polak's direcotorship; Retired, 1979; Special Assistant to Managing Director, 1979-1980; Executive Director, 1981; Second Retirement, 1986; Jacobsson Foundation Consultant to Louis Emmeriji (1986). Influence of Great Depression, gilder devaluation, Keynesian economics, and Professor Jan Tinbergen on economics study; significance of League of Nations in economic and monetary research on IMF, UN, and Bretton Woods Conference development; Bretton Woods Conference history; UN and IMF relationship; differences between IMF and World Bank; evolution of IMF and World Bank monetary policy; future of monetary policy; IMF involvement in Latin America, decolonized Africa, and post-soviet Eastern Europe

Subjects

• Depressions--1929--Netherlands.
• Economists--Interviews.
• Emmerij, Louis, interviewer.
• International Monetary Fund--Officials and employees--Interviews.
• International Monetary Fund.
• International economic relations.
• International finance.
• Interviews
• League of Nations.
• Monetary policy.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Polak, J. J. (Jacques Jacobus), 1914-2010--Interviews.
• United Nations--History.
• United Nations--Officials and employees--Interviews.
• United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (1944 :--Bretton Woods, N.H.)
• World Bank.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 2000